The Fires of New York
by James DM
Summary: After the events of Children of Earth the Doctor arrives in New York City, expecting to find a festival but instead finds massive riots. The people are exhibiting characteristics that are not human. Can he and his new companion Danielle survive this hell?
1. Chapter 1: New York, New York

_**Doctor Who: Fires of New York**_

_**Chapter 1: New York, New York**_

The shining lights that lined the TARDIS glowed with what was once warm ambience. The Doctor looks upon them as the floor beneath him shakes, and remembers when he would herald those lights with someone else. The beauty of this brilliant machine never failed to amaze him, even after 903 years of age. 903? 904? Who's counting, he's got a lot of time left anyway.

He wants to say something, some kind of comment on how beautiful his vessel is. But he holds it back, of course, since there's no one to listen. Out of longing, he looks to his right. Empty space. No Rose…no Martha…no Sarah Jane, no Donna…right. Donna.

Never again.

_Well! _No time to get lost in his head! Switching his mood to a lighter one as he feels the TARDIS slow to a stop, he springs to his feet and makes his way towards his door. _June 12__th__, 2009, in 21__st__ Century New York City! A few days after Torchwood's defeat of the…oh! Forgot my coat!...a few days after Torchwood's defeat of the 456, where America will be cheering in the streets as their troops participate in a manhunt for…screwdriver? Ah! Got it…participate in a manhunt for Prime Minister Green. Street festival – great chance for some American food!_

With that happy thought overtaking his obvious loneliness, he cracks a smile and reaches to open the doors of the TARDIS. They swing open, revealing death and destruction. The city is ablaze with fires. Corpses lay strewn in all directions. Injured too. People are running all over the place. Few are running and hiding for their lives. Most are just adding to the mayhem. He looks above him—a water tower is falling off a roof, directly above him!

_Back to the TARDIS! _He steps back into the TARDIS doors – but the TARDIS is not there! "What?!" He turns in all directions, looking left, right, forward, back, up, down – the TARDIS is no longer around him. It's gone. The water tower is getting closer – the Doctor has no escape – he rolls out of the way, gets up, runs – CRASH – he's safe, though his pants are now quite wet from the loose water. Corpses are moved and buried beneath the current. So many bodies…

_Where the hell am I?! _He looks to his right – a small arch, resembling the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. _Washington Square Park. I'm definitely in New York – WOAH! _He ducks, as a Molotov cocktail passes over his head. He sees as it crashes a few feet away from him, and he dives out of the way to avoid its flame reaching him. He kneels, and brushes off his coat. "Oi! I just cleaned this thing! Queen Elizabeth would kill me!"

He stood up, and looked around. _Time to ask some questions. _He spotted the person who threw the cocktail. He ran over to him, and grabbed his arm, so as to get his attention. The man's eyes then fixed on the Doctor's. There was fire in them.

"Oi, sir, what's going on? Why are you lot rioting like this?"

But the man didn't answer. Instead, he opened his mouth and bore his teeth – his horribly sharp teeth. _Futurekind? _The man then kicked the Doctor, knocking him back a few feet, flat on his back. The Doctor watched as he ran away to wreak havoc somewhere else.

He looks to his right and spots a dumpter. Staggering to his feet and over to it, he slumps down behind it, using it as a hiding spot. He needs to think things through for a minute.

_All right, I'm stuck in New York City, I got that part right. Now is this June 12__th__…_he looks at his watch_…July 5__th__, 2009? That can't be right, unless I misdialed the TARDIS again. I really need to stop that. _He looks at his watch again. July 5th, 2009. Three weeks after where he meant to go. Three weeks since the 456 crisis. The one that he had no intention of intervening with. Jack was on the scene. He solved it.

"But these riots were never supposed to happen." The Doctor muttered to himself.

"Tell me about it." The Doctor heard the young, female, American voice to his left. He looked, and realized that he was so lost in his own head that he didn't even realize that someone was there. A young, pretty brunette girl in her twenties, no doubt, wearing a tank top and jeans. "It's friggin' crazy out there."

"Oh, hello! I'm the Doctor." The Doctor holds out his hand to shake, an inviting grin on his face.

The girl looks at it, skeptically. "Doctor Who?"

"Yeah, I get that a lot. No, I'm just the Doctor. Nice to meet you!" He keeps his hand out.

"How do I know you're not some pervert or something?"

"Oi! Is that what all you Americans think? If a stranger tries to be polite they're automatically being skeevy? No! I'm just trying to be friendly, as usual!" Keeps his hand out, keeps grinning.

The girl eventually shakes it, but still seems guarded. The Doctor acknowledges this. There must be a deeper reason as to why she's so protective of herself. It could be the riots. Perhaps she's just scared. Perhaps she doesn't know who to trust anymore. Understandable.

"Look, um…oh, my apologies, I didn't catch your name."

"Danielle."

"Danielle, we need to get out of here and we need to get out of here right now. Do you know of anywhere we can go? Anywhere safe?"

"Well," Danielle started, but then stopped. It was obvious that she didn't trust him fully.

"Danielle, I'm just someone who's trying to protect their own life, just like you. We need to get somewhere safe. Now do you know a way or not?"

Danielle hesitated, but finally, "There's a makeshift shelter in the sewers. It was set up before the riots started, a couple of people anticipated this would happen. I tried to get in a few minutes ago, but every manhole I find is sealed shut. We're trapped out here."

The Doctor smirks, and then starts rummaging through his pockets. "Entrances sealed shut, eh?" He then produces what looks like a stocky silver screwdriver handle. He flips a switch, and the blue light at the end glows, with an eerie whirring sound emanating from it. Which is odd, because the thing doesn't seem to have any speakers. He then switches it off, and his face bursts into a grin. "You needn't worry about that. Now – where's the best entrance?"

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	2. Chapter 2: Into the Sewers

_**Chapter 2: Into the Sewers**_

It had been long and arduous, but the duo managed to reach the manhole safely – or at least, as safely as possible. A piece of shrapnel from a cocktail became lodged in Danielle's leg. The Doctor had to carry her on his shoulders to their destination. Not to mention the Doctor's trench coat – the one Queen Elizabeth had given him – had been set afire. If he had taken it off a split second slower, the rest of his clothes would have caught fire. Had he himself caught fire, and he started to die – well, let's not think about that.

They were now in the horridly dark New York City sewers, walking along a walkway beside the repulsive river of muck passing at their right. The Doctor needed to use his Sonic Screwdriver just to see ahead of him. But carrying a hundred-something pound girl on his shoulders is a task that required two hands, one to be around her waist and one to hold her hand on his shoulder. So to compensate for this, he had to fasten his screwdriver into his belt loop. Seemed a bit weird, but you make do with what you can.

"So, how far is this place?" The Doctor asked. It was stuffy and rancid down here, he didn't want to be there any longer than he absolutely had to be.

"It shouldn't be long, maybe another hundred feet or so. Maybe a bit more."

"With any luck, it'll smell better in there." The Doctor joked.

"Trust me, it does." Danielle assured him. The Doctor smiled, but it then faded into a frown as he saw Danielle wince.

"Are you all right? What's wrong?" Danielle shook her head quickly to deny anything wrong, but the Doctor wasn't an idiot. "Come, let's sit." They easily lowered themselves down, first placing Danielle down, and then the Doctor sitting beside her. "Let me have a look at that leg, all right?" The Doctor went to roll up her pants leg, but she put her hand on his to stop him. He glared at her for a second, and after much hesitation she submitted.

He slowly started easing her pant leg up from the bottom, and then found what he suspected – a bloody gash with glass lodged quite deep inside her calf. His sonic screwdriver just _might _be able to fix it. Bur there's an off chance that it can't – bloody thing's pretty unpredictable. He frowned at the thought.

"What? What's wrong?" Danielle's question broke the uncomfortable silence.

"I just might be able to fix it with this – " he indicates the glowing device in his belt loop " – but there's a chance that it won't work."

"That blue light? The one you used to open the manhole? How the hell will it heal my leg?"

The Doctor, not wanting to be doubted, pulled out the screwdriver from his belt loop and switched it off, so as not to use it on anything inadvertently. Darkness completely flooded the sewer now. They couldn't see each other right in front of them. Still knowing where the wound was in relation to himself, however, the Doctor pointed the screwdriver to it and hoped for the best.

"Just watch me."

He flipped the switch, and light returned, with the eerie whirring sound overpowering any drips and creaks that came bundled with the ambient noise of the sewers around them. A bead of sweat rolled down the forehead of the Time Lord as he prayed to – well, no one. He doesn't pray anymore. _Please, let this work…_it seemed ineffectual at first, just a simple blue light shining upon a wound – but the sliver of glass seemed to work its way smoothly out of the wound, like magic. The Doctor started to smile, but it turned horrorstruck at the screams of the girl he was attending.

"AAAH!!! AAAAHHH!!!!"

"Don't worry, it'll be okay in a minute, it's almost out, it's almost out!" The Doctor tried to assure her, but she kept screaming, until – it was over. The shard was out. The wound had healed. There were no pieces left in there, no scar, no nothing – you wouldn't even have known she was hurt in the first place. Danielle gasped for breath, panting heavily after her blood-curdling cries.

"Are you okay?" The Doctor spoke in a quiet voice, trying to sound sympathetic. "You all right? Come on, you can stand now, come on." He put his arm around her back and tried to lift her up – it was a struggle – but finally she got to her feet. "There we go. How d'you feel?"

"I'm fine, thanks. How—"

"How did I do that?" The Doctor's demeanor turned dark all of a sudden. "How'd I heal an almost-infected wound with but a simple sonic device? There are a lot of things going on that neither you nor I fully understand, Danielle. Things beyond our explanation. That's what I'm here for. To explain the unexplained."

Danielle stared at him with a sort of combination of fear and awe, but mostly fear. The Doctor could sense it in her gaze. He didn't blame her, not at all – he's been so many places, done so many things, things that humans can't begin to fathom. Humankind always fears what it doesn't understand. That's their nature, it's the one difference he's always had between he and the humans he's encountered – whenever something unexplainable occurs, they always fear it, while he beholds its majesty and his hearts fill with curiosity.

"Come now. Let's go." He said, and with Danielle's leg fully mended, they trudged on forward.


End file.
